Council to probe vanished rivers

Council to probe vanished rivers

JAKARTA (JP): The City Council will question the
administration about several rivers in the capital which have
disappeared due to the construction of housing and office
complexes, a council member said on Friday.

"We will question executives of the city administration in a
hearing about the vanished rivers," the head of the council's
Commission C for Financial Affairs, Amarullah Asbah, said.

Amarullah regretted that several rivers in the city had
disappeared, including ones near the Hilton Hotel in Senayan and
around the Sudirman Center Business District (SCBD), both in
South Jakarta.

He said rivers in the SCBD disappeared as a result of the
construction of huge office complexes. "But I'm not sure whether
the developer of the business district dug tunnels to divert the
rivers."

The councilor said the disappearance of the rivers would cause
environmental problems, including an increase in the number of
flood-prone areas.

Amarullah also said two rivers in Ujung Menteng and Cawang,
both in East Jakarta, had disappeared.

"The rivers belong to the city administration. It's still
unclear why private developers were allowed to reclaim the rivers
and build housing complexes there," he said.

He said a 9,900 square-meter plot of land in Ujung Menteng was
reclaimed by PT Metropolitan Development, and a 7,700 square-
meter plot in Cawang was reclaimed by PT Merdi Jaya.

He said the reclamation of the rivers by the firms was
unclear, adding that data from the city administration only
remarked that the land had been handed over to the private
developers.

"We regret the handing over of this land since it wasn't
reported to the council before it occurred," he said.

He said the data also made no mention of the price of the
land.

"We'll summon executives of the city administration as well as
of the private companies," he said. (jun)